Review of Beginners (2011) by Movie M — 08 Jan 2012

Beginners (R).

Charming. . . The single best word to describe this dramedy starring Ewan McGregor (Big Fish) as Oliver, a deep in thought thirty-something man who is dealing with some issues after his elderly father (Dragnet's Christopher Plummer) comes out of the closet and only a couple of years short of dying from terminal cancer. Split into two parts, the plot switches systematically between them. Primarily, we watch the touching father-son story leading up to daddy's death and how the father went happily as the true person he wanted to leave this life as. But the "after death" portion of this tale is equally important as it depicts how Oliver tries to cope and understand his own existence up to that point; with the help of a new and intriguing love interest (Inglorious Basterds' Melanie Laurent) he starts up a relationship with. Oliver is a quirky individual of strange circumstances who through his thorough examination of life and death in general, discovers that it is ultimately impossible to make sense of the world and the people who occupy it, including himself. While the content of the film seems like it is bleak, it is actually put together in an optimistically cheeky fashion. There certainly isn't one chunk of the story where the viewer won't be either thinking or smiling. McGregor and Laurent are a terrific tandem to watch and a perfect compliment to Plummer, who at the ripe age of 81, puts forth one of his best performances as an individual that any audience will fall for. Director Mike Mills (The Thumbsucker) guides this ideal cast and crafts the culturally fueled film that is "Beginners" into an emotional roller coaster that preaches a thought provoking philosophy: we are beginners at life when we are born, beginners at death when we die, and beginners at everything we change about ourselves in between those two most important parts of our existence. Life, in truth, is but an endless series of beginnings for people to embrace whether they even have a choice or not. Remarkable film. . .

GRADE: A.